United States Becomes Party to the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW Protocol)

On March 17, 2003, the United States deposited its instrument of ratification of the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife to the 1983 Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region, better known as the SPAW Protocol. By ratifying the SPAW Protocol, the United States becomes the eleventh Party to this groundbreaking international agreement, which paves the way for greater coordination and protection of marine biodiversity in the Wider Caribbean region. The SPAW Protocol highlights the region’s growing recognition of the need to conserve threatened and endangered fauna and flora and the habitats on which they depend. The Protocol enters into force for the United States on [date of deposit + 30 days].

The SPAW Protocol, adopted in 1990, is one of three Protocols under the framework of the Cartagena Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment in the Wider Caribbean Region. The other two Protocols deal with cooperation to combat oil spills (the “Oil Spills Protocol,” adopted in 1983), and land-based sources of marine pollution (the “LBS Protocol,” adopted in 1999). The Convention and its Protocols constitute legal mechanisms that enable the 28 countries of the region to protect, develop and manage their common coastal and marine resources individually and jointly in the Caribbean. As a Party to the Cartagena Convention, the Oil Spills Protocol and SPAW Protocol, and as a Signatory to the LBS Protocol, the United States is one of the leading supporters of regional efforts in the Wider Caribbean to protect and conserve the common marine resources of the region.

Many of the region's economies are highly dependent on their coastlines for tourism, fishing, and other marine resources. However, these very same resources are disappearing or are seriously threatened, with wildlife being depleted through over-exploitation and destruction of habitats. The SPAW Protocol responds to this problem through detailed provisions addressing the establishment of protected areas and buffer zones for the conservation of wildlife, both national and regional cooperative measures for the protection of wild flora and fauna, the introduction of non-native or genetically altered species, environmental impact assessment, research, education and other topics. The SPAW Protocol stresses the importance of protecting habitats as an effective method of protecting endangered species.